Internet has brought a drastic change in the business world. One of the latest developments in Internet technology is cloud computing. This technology has also brought significant changes in the field of accounting. There is a growing interest in the utilization of cloud software in the field of accounting. The present study is an attempt to analyze the factors behind the use of cloud software by different sectors in the Udaipur city. The sample selected for the study consists of employees of banking sector, insurance sector, retail sector and other small and medium enterprises in Udaipur. The views of chartered accountants are also collected for a better understanding of the present research. Chi-square test is applied to find the relation between the use of cloud accounting software and size of enterprises and it is found that there is highly significant difference in the adoption of cloud software with the size of the organization. The reasons for non-adoption of cloud software in accounting are also analyzed. Factor analysis is done to identify the factors for which cloud software is used in accounting by different sectors. Factor analysis extracted three major components. One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is applied to test the significant difference of the extracted factors. The result of one-way ANOVA suggests that there is no significant difference in the opinion of respondents working in different sectors regarding various factors for adopting cloud accounting software.

Description

Running a successful business usually means that you are focused on looking after your customers, growing sales and improving profitability. It also means that you are on top of your finances with accurate information so that you can make well-informed decisions, improve profits and manage your cash flow. A decade ago, almost all sectors in India were doing desktop-based accounting (e.g., Tally Accounting). Desktop-based accounting is limited to that specified desktop only and the data cannot be easily accessed from any other device. However, the present era is digitalized, so limiting yourself to only one system is not a viable solution. Cloud computing has become a major topic of interest in the IT world today. Cloud computing refers to transactions performed over the Internet. An example of cloud computing is Google’s mail. The data in cloud is stored on many physical servers that are hosted by third-party service providers. For this service, they charge fees from the users and grant online access to them for managing and maintaining financial records. Thus, cloud accounting or online accounting is where data is stored in a centralized computer and the data can be accessed from any place at any time from any device through the Internet. And this is the main reason that cloud-based accounting software has started becoming popular and its demand is expected to grow massively.

Related literature shows that very less work has been done on awareness and adoption of cloud accounting software in different sectors in India. The present study is an attempt to examine the factors that are causing enterprises to move towards the adoption of cloud accounting software.

Keywords

Demographic Profile of Respondents,Information About Awareness and Adoption of Cloud Accounting, Time Since Cloud Accounting Software Is Adopted, Cloud Accounting Software Analysis, Size of Enterprise and Use of Cloud Computing,One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).